In
this first week of October 2016 I am going to continue to write about cultural
experiences, artistic works which require years of training and exceptional
skill, and works primarily of entertainment but which also can move, challenge
or demand attention. I am doing this while I reflect further on having devoted my
time during the first part of each of the past two weeks to the annual
conferences of the Labour and Conservative Parties and reflecting further on my
decision at the end of June to openly contest the rebellion of the
Parliamentary Labour Party who appeared to have not only declared war on their
leader but on the majority of the Party membership because of the audacity to
support and elect someone as leader who offered an alternative and better approach
to political participation and engagement, who had analysed why as the fifth
largest economy in the world inequalities and injustices were flourishing and
causing great harm to hundreds of thousands of British citizens in their
homeland, and who together with a few likeminded others proposed alternative
policies which are summed up in the phrase twenty first century socialism.
In
response to a Party said to have over half a million members, at least twice,
if not three times that of the Conservative Party, their new leader and
appointed Prime Minister has recognised the threat to the political stability
of the present order of international global capitalism and free market
exploitation, and its implication for the immediate future and standing of her
Party and in one sentence switched the attack from a Conservative Nasty Party
to a Labour Nazi Party and in one speech parked
her tanks on the ground of the centre left as much as the centre right.
In
fact, both leaders and many within the women’s section of the Labour Party, are
advocates for a new political puritanism so that when she called upon those in
the conference hall at Birmingham to join her, she was as much appealing to
Yvette Cooper and Angela Eagle to join her as she was warning those on the far
right of her own party to get on side or leave the battlefield. On the basis of admittedly one speech and a few
indicators of the governmental action to come and using the concept of the five
set major lawn tennis final, she has taken the Tory party into a three to one
set lead in winning the next general election which I suspect she will attempt
to hold before 2020 but only after the terms of Brexit have been negotiated and
the deed accomplished or if forced putting the deal to the electorate and only then if she is convinced she will gain an
overwhelming vote in favour.
The
Prime Minister is unlikely to repeat the mistake of her predecessor who only
got away with the vote to keep Scotland in the Union with the help of Labour
and in particular the intervention of Gordon Brown. Just as the Liberal
Democrats have faced political extinction because of their attempt to gain
power through the Tory Party, the Labour Party in Scotland has paid the price
failing to combat the Sottish Nationalists and then by forming an alliance with
the Tories of the referendum. The Labour Party has faced potential General
Election disaster in England because the evident lack of support given to their
leader and then at the very moment the tide appeared to be turning, by open
revolts and the threat becomes even greater if the civil war continues and has
reached the tipping point that unless the Parliamentary Labour Party can
embrace 21st century socialism action will commence to replace as
Corbyn supporters gain positions of power within constituencies. The first test
will be Prime Minister Questions on October 12th with the Labour
Leader appearing before the Women and Equalities Committee beforehand at 9.30am
The
first week of October is proving exceptional in terms of the diversity of
cultural experience with this evening a visit to the Sunderland Empire for the
musical Sunny Afternoon. On Saturday evening there is nearly a five-hour
performance with intervals of Tristan and Isolde relayed from the Metropolitan
Opera House, New York. Yesterday I saw a film likely to feature in the awards
season because of its contemporary subject content although set at the time of
the Civil War in North America, the Free State of Jones, while on Monday I
enjoyed the diversity implications of Mrs Pergrines Home for Peculiar Children.
On television the experience range has been from Savile and National Treasure,
the powerfully insightful Simon Reeve in Ireland to the concluding episodes in
the important Drama Series Our Girl and DCI Banks, to the seriously and witty
Cold Feet, the disappointing lack an edge as yet Westworld with to come to
tonight the second episode of The Fall, a new Beck on Saturday together with a
speed viewing of the X Factor live and a Strictly Come Dancing. The less said
about the Ryder Cup the better and the announcement that Durham Cricket Club
has been fined points banned from holding Test matches and demoted to the
second division of the championship as the price of a bail out loan merits a
separate writing.
And it
is with the dance and the ballet and relayed film of a live performance of the
Sleeping Beauty that I commence my first response. Of all cultural experiences the
‘traditional’ ballet has influenced and affected me least with film embedded
from childhood followed by television, since it’s a black and while set home
made by a first cousin in time for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth. I cannot
remember now when I was first taken to live theatre which included Opera performances
by the Doyle Carte Opera Company or where they took place, and it was only
after leaving school at 16 years that I commenced to visiting the local repertory
theatre in Croydon on a regular basis and then shows in London and after that
around the UK. As a school child an
uncle took me to a music hall in Croydon, I have a vague memory of a pantomime
at Christmas and a seaside show or two on holiday. In my first year of work in
central London I purchase a half season Promenade for the concerts and went
every night standing mainly in front of the tired stalls and sometimes in the
Gods and this was the same year that a friend at work took me for my first
pints before weekend nights at Cy Laurie, Humphs and the Ken Collyer
traditional jazz clubs in and close to Soho.
When I
say classical dance I mean music and technically structured dance using the
Fairy story as the basis with the three most commonly performed works Swan
Lake, the Nutcracker and Swan Lake. In 1956 I purchased a long play record with
suits of music from Swan Lake and the Sleeping Beauty performed by the Rome
Opera Orchestra conducted by Walter Goehr. I also have a version of Swan Lake
on another LP played by the Odessa Philharmonic and for me it is the music of
Tchaikovsky which captured my interest than attempting to learn the art of the
classical dance and whereas the second
of week of reporting this year I went on
October 4th to a filmed live performance of the Sleeping Beauty in a
new production by the Australian Ballet
company and where the Bolden Cineworld did not provide the usual programme of
synopsis, cast and interval arrangements.
The
reason for this is that at the start of the prologue and each of the subsequent
three Acts there was a brief multilingual story synopsis with that in English
at the top. The cast and other information was flashed by at the end making it
impossible to read anything let alone find out something about the couple who I
assumed where guest principal dancers from another company who performed at the
ball to mark the marriage of the Sleeping Beauty and her prince. Through
Wikipedia I obtained information of interest about the Australian Ballet which
has its roots in a company founded in 1940 and the company only became national
in 1962 but is said to have gained a worldwide standing and reputation.
I must
declare a lack of knowledge about judging the technical measured and controlled
movements of feet, legs and arms involved but the skill displayed was
impressive although it had little emotional impact.
The
production is both lavish and at times stunning and as the Ballet Producer
revealed in a filmed interview the outfits alone cost two million Australian
dollars, and where in height, depth and width, the work was performed on the
biggest stage I have witnessed other than a performance of the Opera Aida at
Earls Court and more on that another day. David McAllister’s (born 1963 the
year I commenced to train as a qualified child care officer) production
revealed that dancing is something he wanted to do as a child. His interest was
reinforced after being taken to see Nureyev and Fontaine, he became a graduate
of the company in 1983, a senior artist in 1986 and principal artist in 1989, a
position held until 2001 with before that impressing the Russians leading to
appearing with the Bolshoi, the Kirov and Georgian state companies. The present
work is his creation in every sense including the provision of some of the
choreography.
Having
long since overcome my negative reaction to thirty to forty year old opera
singers attempting to act as 15 year olds I thought Lana Jones in her early
thirties carried off the role of a
sixteen year old princess well and the sharp features of her face echoed those
of Fontaine whereas the bulk of the trunk her Prince Charming was distracting
although I liked what he had to say
about his function in support of the
ballerina and that for any couple of principal dancers there has to be a
genuine emotional connection and
intensity which in the close up was
evident to see. I thought the performance of the wicked Fairy, Caraboose, was totally
convincing performed by Lynette Wills and was the only other dancer mentioned
in the online cast list together with the good Lilac Fairy of Amber Scott The 65-member
Orchestra Victoria sounded good with its woman conductor Nicolette Fraillon
whose conducting mannerism merit attention as she urges the musicians to close follow
her bidding.
The
story of the opera is simple with the King and Queen holding an event to mark
the Christening of their daughter and the Master of Ceremonies failing to
invite the wicked Fairy Caraboose who makes a curse that although the Princess will
grow up beautiful and a lovely person, the child will prick her finger on a
spindle at 16 and die. The good fairy intervenes
but this only to commute the sentence to 100 years of sleep to be woken by the
kiss of a Prince. In the first Act that follows the parents and courtiers show
amazing negligence in allowing the wicked fairy to carry out the curse and the
Princess is allowed to sleep peacefully in an impressive and attractive locked
capsule with a large key.
In Act
Two the Prince is out hunting when the good fairy arrives and provides him with
a vision of the Princess and how she can be restored to life. As he makes his
way the evil fairy does her best to stop him, fails and the Princess comes back
to life. The final Act centres on the Marriage of the future Queen and consort
and the celebrations that follow with I presume the symbolic ghost in human form
of her parents in attendance and in the final scene the miscellany of characters
coming together in a scene which appears to be set in the Court of the Louis XIV
There
was a fair audience smaller than for Opera and plays and included a mother with
two daughters both of primary school age whose excitement was evident to the
rest of us and I speculated if the cycle of being inspired and devoting a life
to the pursuit of excellence in a highly demanding physical activity was about
to be followed. The cost was a modest additional £5.40 to the monthly
subscription of £17.40, making a total expenditure of £22.80 for the month so
far.
On
Monday October 3rd 2016 I went to see Miss Peregrines Home for
Peculiar Children at the Cineworld Bolden in 3D using the monthly subscription
for the first time in the month. As a
Black card holder, issued after one year of Red card membership I gain 25% on
food, drink, sweets and ices purchased from the cinema instead of the first
year 10% in addition to the 25% reduction available from three onsite
restaurant chains. I have not checked the position of the coffee shop within
the cinema building as I prefer the coffee from the onsite Macdonalds. We used
to gain free attendance at Relays but with their expansion and price increases
all card holders get a reduction of at least 50%, similarly the premium for 3D
films appears to have been removed for everyone and the number of 3D version of
films also appears reduced and those still being released concentrate on
providing a clarity of depth rather than a constant barrage of things flying
out from the screen at you. Despite the astronomical cost of buying extras at
the Pics these days with my card I can still have a one scoop tub of the
flavour of the month ice cream for under £1.40 although this is limited to a
once a month a treat as also the half price sweets and quarter price popcorn
from the neighbouring supermarket are banned in the effort to get below 16
stone by New Year and for the first time in a decade.
I was attracted to seeing the film for two
reasons. I like the concept of Peculiar Children, preferring this to the
politically correct terms for children who are at the ends of the spectrum of
the norm. As a child before going to school I did not know I was different
except that I did not have a mother or father but lived with six aunties one of
whom was married with five and then six children. Because those first five years
covered the second world war, I knew terror, not directly in the sense of death
or permanent disability from the bombing and the rockets but because the
aunties were in a constant state of fear clutching their Rosaries and reciting
the Hail Marys and Our Father endlessly while we waited in the Anderson
Shelter. I retain a vivid memory of a V1 rocket, these flew lower and lower
than the V2, as the siren went in daytime and I could see the rocket coming
towards, cutting out and falling before it reached but I did not equate this
with the potential pain and sorrow had it reached. I came to know pain briefly when a nail in
the Shelter pierced my upper leg and I had to be taken to hospital with the
scar only disappearing decades later. It is possible to remember but without a
clear chronology, events which can be said with hindsight to mark a growing
awareness of being different, of feeling an inarticulate understanding of what was
being said and happening in the adult world, a sense of be different and separate.
The head teacher of the Catholic Preparatory Day school I attended gave me a
letter when I left aged 12 having been made two stay two years in one class
before failing the 11 plus and it was only before my 60th birthday
that I learned what that letter meant, the first and only letter I was to
receive until applying for a job at the age of 16.
Nor
can I remember now when I commenced to read about psychology and whether this
was before or after I stayed in prison for six month knowing that I could leave
at any time but it was from studying psychology part of in Public and Social
Administration as part of the Oxford University Diploma in public and Social
Administration and Home office arranged and funded attendance at a child care training course at
Birmingham University that I developed a Freudian and not a Behaviour
understanding of my development from child to adult. Another two decades were
to pass before I learned than my brain wiring was different from that of other
people and what other aspects of being different meant, particularly in terms
of relationships with others and a potential role in society.
So
from almost the point of being aware of the separateness of others I felt but
could not explain why I regarded as different seeing the world differently.
Because of the choices made as a young adult who choose to leave school at
sixteen years and work rather than attempt the sixth form and to get to a
seminary to be a catholic priest, staying in prison for six months, rejecting
the alternative to prison offered, switching from a diploma course in Politics
and Economics to a social work base course in public and social administration
which included psychology and then undertaking another university and Home Office approved and sponsored course in
social work as a child care officer, I first explained myself to myself as
consequence of having been brought up first as an orphan by aunties who spoke a
different language which they did not
teach me, because of being raised as secret child with fundamentalist Catholic
beliefs, then because of the perspective of
fundamentalist Freudians and
Behaviourists, as an anti-totalitarian, anti-capitalist anti-fascist pro Satyagraha socialist and
only in my forties explained myself because of my physiology and brain being
wired differently from others.
Despite
the various explanations of why I thought I was behaving, feeling and thinking
as I have done and do, I have always retained the belief in having behavioural
and decision making choices but understood that the freedom to exercise choice
was limited by the absence of freedom from. In my early twenties I agreed in
part with the view of Erich Fromm that every child should have the opportunity
to develop their innate and acquired abilities and interests to their maximum
potential but not that these were natural or God given but depended on the form
of state and government in which one was raised and worked and that the concept
of being a subject of a state, region, community and tribe, and in which one is
in part dependent, is valid and that in reality all men and (women) are not borne equal or able to function as
equals.
There
has always been a role for the Wild Duck, the thirteenth at table, the child
who asked why the King was wearing no clothes, together with Alice and Peter
Pans, just as there remains a role for the self-sacrifice of a seer, missionary,
soldier or spy.
Because
of viewing human life and society from the perspective of the creative artist
as well as from, constitutional government, politics and economics, and from
science and academic research, I have
watched and re-watched the most popular film series of the past decades all
centring on children with missions because of unique and special powers – The Alice in Wonderlands, The Lord of the
Rings and the Hobbit, Harry Potter and the X
men and women and it was thus I went to see Miss Peregrines Home for
Peculiar Children. I like Peculiar because it sums up how society in general
treats children who are different. a threat, fear and hate, instead of special
and a valuable social resource.
As in
this film, a feature of the other film series mentioned is that the heroes and
heroines do not know they are special and are often protected by those who understand
their potential because of the knowledge of how society and other children will
react. The protective desire to give children the opportunity to be viewed by
others as normal is responsible and is part of age old question about at what
point do you explain to a child they
have been adopted, they are illegitimate, one of their parents is
another, a parent was a murderer,
committed suicide, mad, a traitor, a
professional criminal, bisexual, a
paedophile or other sex offender or the basics of sex as well as the reality of
adult relationship, the different view of a God or no God?
The
main subject of this film is a normal boy where it is grandfather (Terence
Stamp) who fills his head about a children’s home where the adolescent children
all have unique special powers who face a threat from monsters. The boy, Jake,
grows up and as a teenager is called from work by someone concerned that his
grandfather is suffering from dementia but his grandfather urges him not attend
but Jake ignores the advice finds the grandfather at death’s door but able to
imparts request to find a bird, a loop and the significance of a date during
World War II, which transpires to be the date of a German bombing raid which
destroys the Children’s Home and those in it. The bird? It is no plot spoiler
to mention the title again Miss Peregrine, or that the loop involves the
concept of time being circular as well as linear. Jake also sees an apparition
in the form of a monster, the head monster in fact, played by Samuel L Jackson,
who is also a shape shifter and where a description of his roles
in the film would be plot spoilers.[CS1]
Reminding
of the relatives of Harry Potter who brought him up in a cupboard under the
stairs, and of my own childhood where I would be banished to silence for hours
in an upstairs bedroom when relatives and friends of the aunties visited, Jake
is made to attend sessions with a psychiatrist to overcome the trauma of his
experience, his grief at the loss of his grandfather and what he views as a waking nightmare, something
which I also experienced as a child, when ill and also of a consuming devil
subsequently made similarly real by the latest CGI techniques in a film whose
name I cannot immediately remember. The Psychiatrist is played by former West
Wing Whitehouse media officer Allison Janney.
She becomes the bridge between what he believes he witnessed and his
rationality and agrees to him going to island of the Children’s Home as a way
of re-establishing reality and achieving closure.
Jake
is taken to the Island off the coast of Wales by his rejecting father played by
Chris O’Dowd where another aspect of his character, his perpetual innocence and
naivety comes to the fore (again something which I am able to identify).
Fortunately, he is able to visit the site of the former Children’s Home and
enter the time loop which protects them, meeting Miss Peregrine and the
adolescents who all have different powers but are divided between those of
normal appearance and CGI adapted creations. They re-live in a protected
enjoyable form of Groundhog Day but aware of a threat from what can be described
as Fallen Angles and another Jekyll and Hyde experiment gone wrong. Jake
becomes aware that he has a special role to play in not only the continuing
protection of the children but the survival of other special children at other
locations in protected environments and that the threat from the role played by
Jackson and his associate shape shifters spells the end of everyone in a
gruesome way so that this is not a film for children despite its title. It is
no give away that Jake is successful and the special ones learn how to protect
themselves in the future and the setting of great battle in Blackpool is noteworthy
one of the great holiday playgrounds of the last century before the freedoms of
the sixties left the town to become one of the drink, drug and sex pleasure
grounds of western Europe. The film ends with Jake faced with the choice of
living in reality of the present or locked within a circular past romantically
happy. Judi Dench plays one of the associates of Miss Peregrine.
The Associates
can be regarded as Priests and Priestesses with leadership duties and
responsibilities which sets them apart even from those they teach, care and
protect and which means they are unable to lead what is presented in the media
and also in the arts as normal lives.
The
film is based on the three novels by Ransome Riggs with the second called
Hollow City and the third, Library of Souls The original intention of Riggs was
to create a graphic novel and this was adapted by Cassandra Jean and published
in 2013.
Possessing
3D glasses the cost to me booking on line as a senior would have been £7.36
offset as part of a monthly subscription of £17.40
On
Wednesday 5th October 2016 I experienced what I anticipate is one of
the films which will feature in the various international awards ceremonies
including the Oscars and the Baftas, the Free State of Jones. The film has some historical basis with
several academic studies in attempt to establish fact from legend and myth. The
film confronts a number of fundamental issues which are at present once again
to the fore of political and social on both sides to the Atlantic. It is therefore
not a film like to appeal to the majority of people going to the pictures every
weekend and on 2 for 1 Wednesdays.
From
listening to the conversations which people have on exiting a film theatre and cinema
complex, and where it is often possible to hear the reactions of those
attending films you have not seen or not about to see, I will assert that the
majority go to be entertained, thrilled,
shocked horror, see their phantasies realised or imagine themselves in some of
the roles portrayed. Only a minority go to be inspired and made to think. Some
now go to see if the agree with the reviews of Dr Mark Kermode and Simon Mayo
and also to see if they can spot the Director’s deliberate reference to
previous films or provide their own.
The
story is of the Free State of Jones
told primarily through the experience of Newton Knight a small farmer in Jones
County in Mississippi. Wikipedia provides the relevant historical information
on Jones County past and present. The county is named after John Paul Jones the early
American Naval hero who rose from humble Scottish origin to military success
during the American Revolution.
The size of the county is huge given its population with
less than 70000 today covering 700 square miles compared say to Nottinghamshire
in England of 825 square miles and a population of over 750000. Part of the
reason is that the county has a large area of swamp lands which features in
story as the place where a mixture of deserters from the Confederate army,
oppressed small poor farmers and runaway slaves first hide out and then decided
to take control of their homelands. Only a small area of land was suitable for
cotton with the consequence that only 12% of the original population were
slaves and most of the farmers did not own slaves. This is one aspect of why
many of those drafted to fight in the confederate army were unenthusiastic
especially as back home their wives and children suffered as livestock and
crops were taken to feed the army and those used to in effect pillage and then
draft all the men and then the boys.
The story begins with the senseless way wars have been
conducted until recently with quickly trained infantry told to attack or defend
positions in solid ranks often against superior weapons of in fire power and
from cavalry, machine gun, tank, and rocket and in which large number were
expected to die, lose limbs and other life changing injuries.
The film centers on Newton Knight who although able to
shoot and kill was used as a field nurse (a fact) but deserts in order to
return the body of the young son of a relative in law who he attempts but fails
to protect. This is fiction and although
not a pacifist Jones is said to have argued that a man has the right to
determine what he lives and dies for. In fact, he is known to have enlisted
twice, returning home with permission in between to assist his ailing father.
He is also known to have married before the war commenced establishing a small
farm with his wife and children. When away in the war it is said that his
sister’s husband took over as head of both families and physically abused
Newtons children, and in the film his wife, and Newton on return kills his in
law. Factually someone believed to be the individual became a convicted murderer.
This sense of the right to control one’s life and be free
is a core aspect of the traditional independent USA citizen, anti-government
anti-gun control anti-paying taxes, to follow one’s religion and to make better
one’s life. However, this approach only applied to white people which involved
the taking of land from indigenous people, enslaving and exploiting all workers
and killing anyone who stood in the way of acquisition of land, wealth and
power for oneself and family. In fact, Jones was the grandson of one of the
biggest slave owners in the county, but is has been established that he was cut
from a different cloth in part because of a Baptist background and someone who
did not drink and treated women in particular with respect and all those who
found themselves in a similar position to himself. It would not be surprising
that he stood up for black people given his subsequent relationship with a
black woman which led to the birth of son.
One focus in the film and where there is said to be
evidence is that he and others were prepared to live in swamp as outlaws and
only commenced to retaliate in response to the violence and the thieving and
destruction of property by others. Newton was captured, imprisoned and tortured
because of his desertion.
What has been established to some extent is that Newton
came to lead a significant group of men supported by their families who
commenced to control Jones and other neighbouring counties by successfully
preventing the taking of food and taxes and so through the use of force in
number of recorded incidents described as skirmishes. There are different views
whether the group as far as declaring themselves a separate and free state and
I do not know if as in the film they were thwarted from this ambition by the
failure of the Unionists to provide horses and weapons. The success of the
rebellion leads to a force strong counter move and the execution of ten people
including two relatives of Newton. The film plays into the justified fears of
all local communities, regions and states that the price of joining into larger
groupings is always at the cost of losing individual and local collective
rights. Interestingly in terms of USA politics, Newton, the unionists and those
anti-slaveries in the south supported the Republican Party and former
Confederates and slave owners the Democratic Party,
The film is also about the belief that those of white
skin are superior to the others and that if one cannot own others as property
to used and discarded at will then everything is justified which attempts to
retain power and control by other means.
The covers the attempt after the Civil war ended to retain slavery a
form of low indentured labour, by preventing the right to register and then to
vote, and by intimidation and killings with the rise of Klu Klux Klan, burnings,
rapes, torture and killings.
The film also centers on his relations with two black
individuals one an escaped slave who has repeatedly run away after his wife and
child are resold separately take away to another state. After they are united
but the husband is hung by the Klan when he successfully begins to gather a
number of registration forms
The second is an abused female slave from the major local
plantation owner who is able to assist those living in the swamp with food and
with information. For me this role did not ring true in terms of the ability to
repeatedly travel back and forth and even less convincing although not say such
situations did not arise is the attempt to link the relationships between
Newtons first and second wives and that it is the first wife who brings up the
white looking son created by the second.
The film is interspersed with a legal case 85 years later
when the great great great grandson has married a white which considered
illegal in local community because he was classified as black although only of
one eighth blood. Under the local justice he is sentenced to five years after
refusing to disown the marriage but the sentenced is set aside on appeal as
unconstitutional.
The reality is in some ways more interesting and
challenging. After the ending of the first marriage Newton did marry a former
slave, Rachel, owned by his grandfather and cross over between races and within
extended families continued in the next generation resulting in three
interracial marriages. Rachel Newton has several children by Newton who went
onto live to the age of 84 until 1924.
One of his sons published a book about his father, The Life and
activities of Captain Newton Knight. A great niece also published a book as -
An American tale about the Governor of the Free State of Jones. Academic
studies were also published in 1984 and more recently in 2003.
I enjoyed the film which was also thought provoking but
could not help feeling that many of the issues have been covered before with
greater impact and that those making the film were anxious to show they had
moved on from recent Oscar night when the lack of diversity in films and
performance was highlighted.
Without the monthly subscription I would have paid £7.36
going towards the £17.40 monthly subscription and thus a net saving of £2.72 to
date.
On Thursday evening October 6th 2016 I went to
the Empire Theatre Sunderland to see the musical on the life of the Kinks, Sunny Afternoon, and which proved to
be an unexpected experience in two ways. First the maximum amps were turned up
for short spells, fortunately only twice, reminding the U2 Tribute band concert
at the Customs House a few years back and here I met the band in a van lost on
the hill where I live overlooking the mouth of the River Tyne, in search of
their B and B. I went down and purchased a ticket just before the concert. It
was so loud that some of the audience including younger members left at the
interval. The only other memorable instance of intolerable loudness was an Elkie
Brooks concert also some years back. Sunny Afternoon was both great as a
musical and also provided important insights into the lives of rock musicians
and the interactions between band members and their other relationships.
I set off to arrive when I anticipated the theatre would
open, parking at the Bridge Shopping Centre Car Park just before 6.15 and where
the cost for the evening was only £1 because of the Thursday night late opening
session. I had brought the novel The Season Ticket but left it in the car and
decided not to not to bother to go back once going out of the shopping Centre towards
the theatre having buttoned the coat on a chilly evening. I was early for 7.30
show start as I wanted to get a ticket for the Tommy Steel playing of Glenn
miller in the show already seen at the Theatre Royal. I also had a glass of wine with the ticket
and a large glass with a third filled plus a small carton of Pringles original
crisps for £2. I took a bar stool seat at a window in the circle bar keeping my
coat on as it was evident the heating had only recently been switched on in
this area although the main auditorium was fine.
On arrival there was just me entering and half a dozen
staff selling programmes and checking tickets at the two entrance and there was
a choice of seating in the circle bar so I wondered about the audience response
on this first night. By the time of curtain up the stalls were full and look
back up so appeared the upper tiers. My aisle seat was closer to the stage as
anticipated as there was an extension into the auditorium enabling singers and
dancers to perform with the first rows having to look across sideways and the
main set a full stage rectangular room filled on three sides with attractively
autumn warm coloured loudspeakers which I assume represented the Konk recording
studios and which covered over, I thought rather drab, for what became the
ill-fated USA tour.
The Musical provides the opportunity to go through the
Kinks song book and there is now the statutory ten-minute demand for the
audience to stand join in sing and dance as a finale but this is a rare event a
musical which also tell the raw and frank truth of the band together with the
impact of the fame and fortune but also of every member, their separate lives
as well as interactions. Some of the aspects are applicable to most bands of
young men, the temptation to party to success with teenage girls, drink and
drugs, and to
rebel at the nature of the industry with managers and agents taking their
percentage although nothing compared to palms to be crossed when performing in
the USA. The story, the lyrics were created by the principal singer song writer
Ray Davies but he repeatedly makes the point of the collective nature of their
success, consistent with the socialism upon which his life is based. What is
contentious is the claim that the band should be viewed alongside the Beatles
and the Rolling Stones in terms of their artistic and playing abilities. What
is clear is that Ray Davies attempted throughout to create music with lyrics
which reflected his changing experiences of the changing society around him.
The
band was originally created by the youngest brother Dave who became ranked as
one of the top 100 guitarists of all time, was a sometime lead vocalist and lyricist
lyrics with six older sisters and older brother Ray. The family who lived in
Muswell Hill North London were music in the music all tradition was an active
part of all their childhoods. A three bedroom two storey terraced House with a large
100-yard garden is selling for £1.35 million the cheapest from one online
estate agent rising to £3m with the average property over £2m. Dave became a larger than life character on
and off the stage, expelled from school because of a relationship with an
underage girl who became pregnant a where separated by the two families he did
not meet with their child until three decades later. He had been twice married
and had other relationship, cross dressing at times and bisexual and altogether
eight children. He had stroke in 2004
but continues to make news.
Dave
originally formed the band with Peter Quaife who visited the family home and was
at school with Ray and remained a key member for the for six years and in the
Musical the reason given for his departure was a combination of wanting to lead
a more stable life and because of relationship problems between the drummer
Mick Avory and Dave, although in fact Peter went on to lead his own band the
Mapleoak with two Canadians and members and playing for a time in Denmark. His
involvement with the band and the music industry was short lived and spent
nearly two decades in Canada and then back in Denmark. Peter suffered renal
problems and was dependent on dialysis for ten years dying in 2010. He remained
a loyal supporter of the Kinks the appearance if the band at Glastonbury was
dedicated to him
The
outstanding drummer Mick Avory remained with the band for two decades, a record
second only to Charlie Watts of the Rolling Stones, mentioned because in fact
it is said that back in in 1962 Mick rehearsed at a pub in London with
musicians who formed the original Rolling Stones. It is said he played with the
Stones at their first gig at the Marquee, a venue where I attended its opening
when the John Dankworth band and singers performed. When his playing career
with the band ended Mick commenced to manage the Konk recording studios founded
by the Davies brothers and which they still use to this day with the recordings
of the 29 Musical show numbers created on disc. The feuding between him and Dave
was legendry but long since resolved.
Ray
Davies is the first to acknowledge the debt he has to his younger brother,
Peter and Mick and also their first two managers but his work as a songwriter
justifiably led to his induction in the USA Hall of Fame and to C.B.E here in
the UK. Like his brother, at times he has had a dramatic personal life married
three times and with other significant relationships including with Chrissy
Hinds. In the musical he makes reference that his first wife was a school girl
of (Lithuanian?) Catholic family background and the political background of her
parents was an issue when in the United States as well as his commitment to
socialism. The pregnancy of his wife coincided with the USA tour so she was
unable to accompany and where she was a backing singer at times with brother
Dave and also could play the guitar. It is not clear when Ray was first
diagnosed as bipolar but would have been a factor in his admitted suicide
attempt following the breakup of his first marriage with whom he has two daughters,
another with Chrissy Hinds with a fourth daughter from his marriage to an Irish
Ballet dancer. When in the USA in 2004
he was shot in the leg while chasing thieves who had stolen the bag of his
companion in the French Quarter of New Orleans and in 2011 he spent six months
recovering from blood clots on the lungs.
He
and the band are justifiably famed for a long series of records which
achieved success in the, UK, the USA and
worldwide and which are familiar those of my and subsequent generations and
to a new generation who attend performances of the musical although the
majority those in stalls at Sunderland appeared to be aged between 40 and
80: You Really Got Me, Sunny Afternoon,
Lola, All Day and All of the Night, Waterloo Sunset and two of my favourites Follower of Fashion and Where have
all the good times Gone. It is noteworthy that it was Dave, dissatisfied with
the sound of the opening chords of You Really Got me who worked out the idea of
creating the raw sound by cutting into the amplifier and increasing the volume
to the maximum amps. I share those who argue that it is this aspect of the
recording together with blues background which catapulted the band from
obscurity into transatlantic attention and success and which also had great
influence on rock, heavy metal and punk.
What
struck me most during the Musical is the contrast between the deafening sound
of hard rock and the tender and profound insights of the ballads. Despite a
huge list of books to read and review I will add Ray’s biography to the
purchase of the CD. A special mention for the cast of this touring production
and while that of Ray was impressive I am singling out the young man who played
Dave who given my close up position seat I have never before seen someone put
so much into an acting and sing role, but every one contributed to giving the
audience a great time. The contrast between their energy and commitment the age
and evident infirmity of their audience is the best way to end given that I
count eight other members of the audience with walking sticks.
I
have never been a fan of the operatic works of Richard Wagner because of
prejudices starting as a child of the Blitz and whose first memory was of a V1
rocket heading for our home and falling short, and then learning that his music
was favoured by Hitler because he believed it extolled the things in which he
believed. I have also to be honest that I find the German language harsh
perhaps because of my Mediterranean heritage Spanish, Italian and Greek have
all had greater appeal. This has not prevented experiencing some of his
thirteen opera in the cinema via relay from a great opera House. Der fliegende Hollander and Die Meistersinger
within the past three years had impressed and changed some of my previous
feelings.
The
epic duets of Tristan unde Isolde experienced at the Cineworld Bolden on
Saturday evening at 5pm, 8th October 2016 means that I do get their
worldwide popularity and I also realised that without preparation such as when seeing
a Shakespeare play the ear takes time to attune. The opera was being relayed
from the Metropolitan Opera House, New York which is celebrating fifty years
since moving to its present premises at the Lincoln centre from the inadequate
and limiting former home where the effort had been made to create an auditorium
fit for the elite but failed to foresee the needs of singers and for staging as
the 20th century progressed. One of the advantages of attending the Relays is
the provision of background films and live interviews which in this instance
covered the history of Opera House and which opened at the Lincoln centre on
September 16th 1966 over a year late and even then the new machinery
kept failing putting the opening in peril.
In
fact, it has been the tendency of the Met to appear to concentrate on
spectacular staging and when during intervals there is no film or interview
taking place the camera shows the background work between acts of changing
staging and vast area which the back stage occupies whereas previously some
staging had to be kept outside against the back wall and in all weathers. In
addition to its huge chorus and orchestra the Met has an army of people working
behind the scenes as well as front of House and which is added to up to over fifty
more in order to make the relays and which also lead to DVD’s and CD’s. Even
with its refurbishment and updating the Royal Opera House has always struck me
as less extravagant although my impression, which I accept may be false is that
the British House has been pioneering the use of digital projection and which
was a feature of this production with each Act commencing with projections of a
large ring in which there are abstract images of a vessel travelling in a
turbulent sea, or just the forces of nature dictating the events of human kind.
In
Tristan and Isolde of Tristan and Isolde the two leads played by the renowned
Nina Stemme and the more still up and coming Stuart Skelton are on stage for
some four hours together or separately with other soloists. There is no on
stage chorus and that off stage is only heard briefly. The performance rests on
the two principals and the other soloists all exceptional. There is some
theatrical movement with at the ends of the set stairways between the decks of
the ships.
For
this writing of my experience I will reproduce the story provided by Wikipedia
to which I donate a monthly subscription such has been the value to me over the
past three years, although I always check any material with other sources. I am
doing this because for the first time there was double printed sheet setting
out the story and presenting the cast list and which I suggest may mark a move
to persuading the relay goer to go to digital programme which includes film
clips in addition to the photographs, production notes and credits in the
programmes previously free but now available at a cost of less than half the
printed souvenir, unless you chose to print out in colour
“Act 1
Isolde, promised to King Marke in marriage, and her
handmaid, Brangäne, are quartered aboard Tristan's ship being transported to the king's
lands in Cornwall. The opera opens with the voice of a young sailor singing of a
"wild Irish maid", ("Westwärts schweift der Blick")
which Isolde construes to be a mocking reference to herself. In a furious
outburst, she wishes the seas to rise up and sink the ship, killing herself and
all on board ("Erwache mir wieder, kühne Gewalt"). Her scorn
and rage are directed particularly at Tristan, the knight responsible for
taking her to Marke, and Isolde sends Brangäne to command Tristan to appear
before her ("Befehlen liess' dem Eigenholde"). Tristan,
however, refuses Brangäne's request, claiming that his place is at the helm.
His henchman, Kurwenal, answers more brusquely, saying that Isolde is in no
position to command Tristan and reminds Brangäne that Isolde's previous fiancé,
Morold, was
killed by Tristan ("Herr Morold zog zu Meere her").
Brangäne returns to
Isolde to relate these events, and Isolde, in what is termed the
"narrative and curse", sadly tells her of how, following the death of
Morold, she happened upon a stranger who called himself Tantris. Tantris was
found mortally wounded in a barge ("von
einem Kahn, der klein und arm") and Isolde used her healing powers to
restore him to health. She discovered during Tantris' recovery, however, that
he was actually Tristan, the murderer of her fiancé. Isolde attempted to kill
the man with his own sword as he lay helpless before her. However, Tristan
looked not at the sword that would kill him or the hand that wielded the sword,
but into her eyes ("Er sah' mir in die Augen"). His action
pierced her heart and she was unable to slay him. Tristan was allowed to leave
with the promise never to come back, but he later returned with the intention
of marrying Isolde to his uncle, King Marke. Isolde, furious at Tristan's
betrayal, insists that he drink atonement to her, and from her medicine chest
produces a vial to make the drink. Brangäne is shocked to see that it is a
lethal poison.
Kurwenal appears in the
women's quarters ("Auf auf! Ihr Frauen!") and announces that
the voyage is coming to an end. Isolde warns Kurwenal that she will not appear
before the King if Tristan does not come before her as she had previously
ordered and drink atonement to her. When Tristan arrives, Isolde reproaches him
about his conduct and tells him that he owes her his life and how his actions
have undermined her honour, since she blessed Morold's weapons before battle
and therefore she swore revenge. Tristan first offers his sword but Isolde
refuses; they must drink atonement. Brangäne brings in the potion that will
seal their pardon; Tristan knows that it may kill him, since he knows Isolde's
magic powers ("Wohl kenn' ich Irland's Königin"). The journey
almost at its end, Tristan drinks and Isolde takes half the potion for herself.
The potion seems to work but it does not bring death but relentless love ("Tristan!"
"Isolde!"). Kurwenal, who announces the imminent arrival on board
of King Marke, interrupts their rapture. Isolde asks Brangäne which potion she
prepared and Brangäne replies, as the sailors hail the arrival of King Marke,
that it was not poison, but
rather a love potion.
Act 2
King Marke leads a
hunting party out into the night, leaving Isolde and Brangäne alone in the
castle, who both stand beside a burning brazier. Isolde, listening to the
hunting horns, believes several times that the hunting party is far enough away
to warrant the extinguishing of the brazier – the prearranged signal for
Tristan to join her ("Nicht Hörnerschall tönt so hold").
Brangäne warns Isolde that Melot, one of King Marke's knights, has seen the
amorous looks exchanged between Tristan and Isolde and suspects their passion ("Ein
Einz'ger war's, ich achtet' es wohl"). Isolde, however, believes Melot
to be Tristan's most loyal friend, and, in a frenzy of desire, extinguishes the
flames. Brangäne retires to the ramparts to keep watch as Tristan arrives.
The lovers, at last
alone and freed from the constraints of courtly life, declare their passion for
each other. Tristan decries the realm of daylight which is false, unreal, and
keeps them apart. It is only in night, he claims, that they can truly be
together and only in the long night of death can they be eternally united ("O
sink' hernieder, Nacht der Liebe"). During their long tryst, Brangäne
calls a warning several times that the night is ending ("Einsam wachend
in der Nacht"), but her cries fall upon deaf ears. The day breaks in
on the lovers as Melot leads King Marke and his men to find Tristan and Isolde
in each other's arms. Marke is heartbroken, not only because of his nephew's
betrayal but also because Melot chose to betray his friend Tristan to Marke and
because of Isolde's betrayal as well ("Mir – dies? Dies, Tristan –
mir?").
When questioned, Tristan
says he cannot answer to the King the reason of his betrayal since he would not
understand. He turns to Isolde, who agrees to follow him again into the realm
of night. Tristan announces that Melot has fallen in love with Isolde too.
Melot and Tristan fight, but, at the crucial moment, Tristan throws his sword
aside and allows Melot to severely wound him.
Act 3
Kurwenal has brought
Tristan home to his castle at Kareol in Brittany. A
shepherd pipes a mournful tune and asks if Tristan is awake. Kurwenal replies
that only Isolde's arrival can save Tristan, and the shepherd offers to keep
watch and claims that he will pipe a joyful tune to mark the arrival of any
ship. Tristan awakes ("Die alte Weise – was weckt sie mich?")
and laments his fate – to be, once again, in the false realm of daylight, once
more driven by unceasing unquenchable yearning ("Wo ich erwacht' weilt
ich nicht"). Tristan's sorrow ends when Kurwenal tells him that Isolde
is on her way. Tristan, overjoyed, asks if her ship is in sight, but only a
sorrowful tune from the shepherd's pipe is heard.
Tristan relapses and
recalls that the shepherd's mournful tune is the same as was played when he was
told of the deaths of his father and mother ("Muss ich dich so
versteh'n, du alte, ernst Weise"). He rails once again against his
desires and against the fateful love potion ("verflucht sei, furchtbarer
Trank!") until, exhausted, he collapses in delirium.
After his collapse, the shepherd is heard piping the arrival of Isolde's ship,
and, as Kurwenal rushes to meet her, Tristan tears the bandages from his wounds
in his excitement ("Hahei! Mein Blut, lustig nun fliesse!").
As Isolde arrives at his side, Tristan dies with her name on his lips.
Isolde collapses beside
her deceased lover just as the appearance of another ship is announced.
Kurwenal spies Melot, Marke and Brangäne arriving ("Tod und Hölle!
Alles zur Hand!"). He believes they have come to kill Tristan and, in
an attempt to avenge him, furiously attacks Melot. Marke tries to stop the
fight to no avail. Both Melot and Kurwenal are killed in the fight. Marke and
Brangäne finally reach Tristan and Isolde. Marke, grieving over the body of his
"truest friend" ("Tot denn alles!"), explains that
Brangäne revealed the secret of the love potion and that he had come not to
part the lovers, but to unite them ("Warum Isolde, warum mir das?").
Isolde appears to wake at this and in a final aria
describing her vision of Tristan risen again (the "Liebestod", "love death"), dies ("Mild und
leise wie er lächelt"). “
